Key Lime Pie (paleo, dairy free, nut free, AIP)

This Key Lime Pie is one of my most favorite desserts. I’d go so far as to say it’s one of my signature desserts! I have prepared this pie in more cooking & un-cooking classes then I can count. I love this dessert, as it is so simple to create, it uses ingredients you can find in any grocery store, it’s dairy free, and nut free. It is the true essence of a pure and simple recipe. The fully raw version I used to make is located here, but I have updated it to now include a baked, nut free, coconut macaroon crust. This pie is seriously a slice of heaven. I promise you and your friends won’t even taste the avocado, instead you will be take back to memories of eating Key Lime Sherbet at a Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Shop with your softball team after winning your first little league game. It totally tastes like lime sherbet. You can make this a full 8″ pie, or do as I like to do and make 8 to 9 individual pies in a muffin pan. That way you can pull one out whenever you feel like treating yourself to a guilt free, nourishing dessert. Plus I think the mini pies are always more fun to serve at parties too! And you can also make this pie crust-less, and just pour the filling into cute little desserts cups as I have pictured below.

For those wanting to do a a low carb, sugar free version, just use stevia in the key lime pie filling instead of honey. The coconut macaroon crust was adapted from this recipe on Elana’s Pantry. See photos of my crust free version below. And this vegan coconut whip recipe here (easily sugar free) adds quite a nice compliment!

Blend all pie filling ingredients together in a food processor. Taste test and adjust ingredients to your liking. Spoon into pie crust recipe from below. Set in freezer for 1 hour to firm up.

This pie can be kept in the fridge for a couple of days, or in the freezer for weeks. They freeze really well! When they have been stored in the freezer, just be sure to set it out for for a few minutes to soften up a bit before serving.

Mix and mash the crust ingredients together in a mixing bowl, until the “dough” starts to stick together. You might have to add a little extra honey to get it to stick if you are using super fine coconut shreds. I find the medium flake coconut holds together a lot better then the fine shred coconut, but the fine shred also makes it more “crust-like”.

Take a standard muffin pan and line it with 8 to 10 no-stick paper liners. Or line a spring form pan, or pie dish with parchment paper. Then mash the coconut pie crust mixture into the muffin cups or pie pan.

Bake the empty pie crust in an oven set at 350*F for 7 to 10 minutes. Keep a close eye on it at 7 minutes, as soon as the top starts to turn a golden brown around the edges, you want to remove the crust. At 7 minutes, I took a spoon and carefully pushed down the centers of each little crust that popped up, and stuck them back in the oven for another 3 minutes. Be very gentle with it right out of the oven, it will be very crumbly. (but don’t worry, once these pies set, they hold together very well!)

Once the pie crust cools off a bit, you will want to put the crust in the freezer for another 15 to 20 minutes to chill. Now you can prepare the pie filling from the recipe above.

Remove crust from freezer, spoon in the key lime pie filling, and return to the freezer to set for about one hour.

My face’s mouth never wants me to stop putting these in them. When licking the remnants out of the bowls, my knees would buckle; my head would flip towards the heavens; my utterances would turn into something like “Oh Gaawwd! That is soooo good”; then I would repeat.

As each of my guests raised a spoonful to their lips, I would stare at their face until it registered the magnificence of what they had just stuffed in their mouth. The riveting conversation that had precluded this dessert, quickly turned into a chorus of grunts and moans of disbelief as how good these were. My only sadness was that I only made half a batch. Lesson learned.

You can try it anyway you want to! I just happen to be a big believer in parchment paper for hassle free baking. I have never had parchment paper stick when baking or freezing. Now I could see “wax” paper sticking. And I have only baked this with parchment, so I honestly cannot advise otherwise. But, it might work just fine!? This is a high fat crust, so that will help the non-stick qualites. I just got fed up with loosing grain free baked desserts when they stick, so out of habit I use a little parchment every time for fool proof baking.

The key lime pie filling works out awesome with just a little stevia, as included in the recipe options above. But I don’t think this pie crust will hold together as well without the 1/4 sweetener, so just use another sugar free pie crust that you like best, or skip the crust all together and pour the pie filling into dessert cups.

This is my new favorite dessert!!! I tested it as a wedding dessert for my husband to be and myself and while it’s not exactly what I wanted, it was so delicious I am going to use the filling in a different pie crust!
This combo with the little crust nests is the perfect ratio of creamy and sweet with crunchy and satisfying. So so good! Thanks for sharing it 🙂